 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
Let us remember the potential neurological consequences of the mechanical shock we talked about before, and bring some more considerations.
Remembering that these consequences can manifest themselves alone, or in combinations, furthermore at insignificant or extreme degrees (in relation to the shock parameters and to the different components of the individual) they express themselves in three different categories:
1) Scoliosis
With a necessary early age onset (around the age of 6 to 10) they will show their most important development during the maximum growth phase, meaning pre-puberty and puberty. In case of disorganization, non correct information is transmitted to the brain from the "proprioceptors" ( sensitive elements of neurological system informing of the articular position for the central nervous system to react with the appropriate muscular tone, so that articulations do not go just anywhere!) and inappropriate response is given. Through asymmetrical muscular contractions, the end result will be a deviation from the so-called ideal straight postural standard.
A study that I heard about fifteen years ago had the tendency to show a slight female predominance and above all, that if we had "straightened up" the concerned curvatures, the concerned individuals would have been taller by a few centimeters, compared to the average population! Of course that was it: they were "shortening" themselves: scoliosis was psychological... Unfortunately, this was not followed by any study talking about the therapeutical aspect and it's results.
2.) Allergies
Going along with the above example, we can say that in reality, it is only the expression of the wrong information from a mucosa (for example "this pollen is a dangerous enemy!") and a hyper-reaction from the central nervous system (rhinitis, itching, sneezing, asthma, watery eyes...). However, have you ever heard about the psychological component of allergies and their outbreak in stressful situations...?
3.) Learning disabilities, dyslexia, hyperactivity and more.
This is obviously the most important subject concerning you, so we will make an attempt to develop it with a broad spectrum.
At an osteoarticular level, micromovements of the cranial sutures have been demonstrated during respiratory phases. It is therefore evident that a cranial trauma will result in mechanical distortions at the cranial sutural level as well as the jaw and cervical column. These distortions deserve the greatest attention, and it is important to analyze their consequences which are, as a rule, ignored by everybody and therefore totally neglected.
a.) The first distortion to be considered will concern a horizontal plane (right/left) and classically, the individual having reading and learning difficulties will show a cranial tilt with the right side superior and the left inferior. One of the results, among others, is the horizontal imbalance of the orbital cavities and therefore a horizontal imbalance of the eyes. As long as we are neurologically built to have our eyes in a horizontal plane, (this being the reference point for the inner ear, equilibrium organ) a portion of the brain will immediately and constantly mobilize itself to bring them back to the horizontal plane. The problem arises as soon as the eyes look down and to the left, therefore in the direction of the low tilt. At that point there will be an alarm at the brain level which will instantaneously drop some neurological integration functions which it considers of secondary importance. Now think about the first function required by reading and writing: you have to go and look for the beginning of the line. In our civilization it is down and left in relation to the visual field! The resulting effect is a neurophysiological dysfunction! Simple observation allows us to confirm this: any individual presenting this type of trouble will systematically pull his book, sheet of paper, or his newspaper toward the right in order to avoid this disastrous left lower quadrant inside which he is not able to integrate in a normal manner. He is going to read and write on the right, eliminating as much as possible the lower left quadrant. This explains the paradoxical writing position of left-handers (who actually are right handers, disorganized during their learning to write phase.)
Along the same same considerations, individuals having a neurological disorganization become easily noticeable on a tennis court: they are just "no good" at backhands (forehands for left-handers), not having any longer the necessary neurophysiological coordination to hit the ball with the racket at the appropriate spot. We can easily tell who is disorganized by watching from the sidelines. In order to compensate for this handicap, they necessarily adopt a left rotation in their body position to maximally eliminate the deficient lower left quadrant. The modification of this position will not be possible, to the despair of the tennis teacher. Paradoxically, learning to ski will not give them any trouble, it's main difficulty being (for a normally organized individual) when making a diagonal down the slope with the uphill leg in flexion together with the arm of the same side (homolateral position of the neurological disorganization.)
b) The second distortion implicates the floor of the cranium in it's anteroposterior aspect, known as the sphenobasilar junction. It is as if it's middle portion was raised "in flexion." If we now consider the result on the cranial box, of which it is the floor, it is evident that the volume will be diminished. For a child, an intact volume is very important because his brain is growing in size and needs the space. Attempts to correct this diminished volume may become imperative. Guess how he will manage that. Imagine a horizontal line that is bulging upward in the middle. What would be the best mechanical way to bring it back to horizontal? Wouldn't it be to contact the inferior aspect of one the two extremities (the other one being immobilized) and to pull on it? This is actually exactly what the "thumb sucker" is doing by pulling forward with his thumb on the anterior portion of the hard palate and the incisors. In some circumstances, he has to do it so much that his hard palate will become totally deformed.
You understand that it is a question of neurological survival of the individual and why even the rudest means are very often unable to make a child stop sucking his thumb. As a matter of fact, is a 15 year old sucking his thumb a "big baby" ?... As well as the 35 year old patient of mine, waking up her husband at night with the noise from sucking her thumb, or the grandmother whose two grandchildren told me that I absolutely had to treat her, after they stopped themselves following mechanical re-equilibration? But of course there is a "psychological component"! It is the thumb in the mouth but without any form of suction which is part of the affective domain, and very often spontaneously disappears by the age of two.
c) The third mechanical component to consider is at the level of the jaw. We will only talk briefly about it to avoid becoming too technical and to get off the subject. It is however of prime importance that there is no possible cranial box integrity without systematical function of the jaw, the opposite being true, and this for obvious reasons (muscular attachments). It is also true that the jaw will constantly modify the function of the low back, pelvis and hips, with the reverse also being true. This is demonstrated to all of our patients based on clinical measures made before and after.
One of the resulting modifications due to jaw dysfunction will also affect the diaphragm. It is important to understand that the diaphragm is schematically composed, at its posterocentral aspect, of crossing fibrous bands which are submitted to opposite tractions by its constituting muscles. It is important because these fibrous bands circle the end of a "tube" which immediately opens into the stomach. In case of jaw dysfunction, the left portion of the diaphragm will get weak by reflex, therefore releasing a little of the necessary traction and allowing the superior portion of the stomach to become stuck. Medically speaking we will now have a "hiatal hernia", or herniation of the stomach through the diaphragm, with the accompanying symptoms of burning, regurgitation and bloating. It is rather seldom that children are concerned by these symptoms, except an occasional bad breath , especially in the morning, so why talk about it?
There is a phenomenon that we all know very well, but about which medicine is not ready to talk to us: we have an organ in total relation with the psychoaffective system. How do we know about it? It is very simple. We all have been scared at least once in our life and therefore we all know that the first physical manifestation of fear in an unpleasant feeling in the upper portion of the abdomen which will feel like a ball. We know too well that for a long time we have corresponding popular expressions like having "butterflies" in our stomach. We therefore constantly refer to the stomach upon feelings of fear or anxiety.
If we put back together all the elements, we have a mechanical problem at the level of the jaw, which creates a mechanical agression at the stomach through the diaphragm, but we just said that the stomach was fully part of the psychoaffective system, even the most important component of that system. Therefore we are facing mechanical problems resulting in psychoaffective manifestations. The stomach is the location of anxiety, especially of the phobic type; it is not because you have a stomach problem that you have to suffer from anxiety and phobias, but if you have anxiety and/or phobias you definitely must have a stomach problem. The chiropractic profession has shared this knowledge with an American psychologist, Dr. Callahan, who wrote a book in 1985 "Five minute Phobia Cure" which quickly became a best seller in the USA.
He added another dysfunction which is one of the small intestine. When combined with the stomach dysfunction, appears a phenomenon which is named "psychological reversal" or as Callahan says: "self sabotage." Clinically speaking, it means that the more an individual tries to be positive the more the opposite happens, the more he wants to get out of a situation, the deeper he goes into it. Don't you have stunning examples of this near you? This is the only possibility of falling into depression or even to reach the bottom of the pit represented by suicidal attempts and thoughts of death, with which the human race is not built, as a base. Obviously, it is not because you have a psychological reversal that you have to have depression or suicidal ideas, but the opposite is a constant. You cannot have depression or suicidal ideas without being in psychological reversal. Have you ever been disturbed by the fact that most depressed people near you never have in fact never a very good reason for it? All that has just been said evidently also concerns children, with the unexplainable dramas that we are all aware of. Fortunately it is enough to change the parameters for the clinical picture to be radically modified, and this is a constant when done by a chiropractor having the proper knowledge of applied kinesiology
Within the chiropractic profession, we consider that we have three floors of respiration which function in a synchronous way during the respiratory phases. We first talked about the "cranial floor" and the "diaphragmatic floor." Remaining is the third one, known as the perineum which is located between the genital organs and the anus and is actually the floor of the abdominal cavity. When the other two are in dysfunction, the same will happen to it, with weakness as a consequence, allowing a descent of the organs of the abdominal cavity, including the bladder. Potential result: enuresis or bed wetting that the 13 year old does on purpose to bother Mom......! Think about the psychological consequences for that 25 year old patient engaged for two years, about to get married, who will have to for the first time sleep in the same bed as her beloved one, having been too embarrassed to talk about this problem before. Or the very respectable lady not daring to burst out laughing, afraid of some drops leaking...!
It is not my purpose to put down the field of psychology which has it's definite role in medicine. However, we have to state that the importance it is given in the above mentioned situations is especially not correct. These situations being nothing else than psychoaffective manifestations of mechanical dysfunctions
